sauce

[saws]

noun

1. any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.

2. stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.

   cranberry sauce.

3. something that adds piquance or zest.

4. Informal.,  sauciness; impertinence; impudence.

5. Slang.,  Usually the sauce hard liquor.

   He's on the sauce again.

6. Archaic.,  garden vegetables eaten with meat.

verb (used with object)

sauced, saucing 

1. to dress or prepare with sauce; season.

   meat well sauced.

2. to make a sauce of.

   Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.

3. to give piquance or zest to.

4. to make agreeable or less harsh.

5. Informal.,  to speak impertinently or saucily to.

sauce

/ sɔːs /

noun

1. any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour

2. anything that adds piquancy

3. stewed fruit

4. dialect,  vegetables eaten with meat

5. informal,  impudent language or behaviour

verb

1. to prepare (food) with sauce

2. to add zest to

3. to make agreeable or less severe

4. informal,  to be saucy to

Other Word Forms

• sauceless adjective
• oversauce verb (used with object)

Word History and Origins

Origin of sauce¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; salt ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of sauce¹

C14: via Old French from Latin salsus salted, from salīre to sprinkle with salt, from sal salt

Idioms and Phrases

• hit the bottle (sauce)

Example Sentences

So she heads to a food pantry near the base to stock up on boxes of pasta and cans of sauce.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But there’s also Stove Top stuffing and that fake cranberry sauce, because I’m still from the block.

Read more on Salon

It’s simpler to prepare than one might assume, whether a chef goes Daisy’s route and simply roasts it or, like Charles, adds his great grandmother’s zesty sauce.

Read more on Salon

We’re talking three steakhouse meals a day, complete with sides and sauces.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

She no longer cooks her mother's old recipes -- rabbit in mustard sauce, pork chops -- for her grandchildren.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• dressing 
• flavoring 
• gravy 
• relish